The week Ren took a break for his project quickly passed and Ino came to their usual training grounds, noticing that Hinata was already there and only their teacher was still missing.
Coming closer, Ino saw that Hinata with her jacket off was disgruntledly healing some unpleasant-looking bruises and winced at their purple discoloration. Her happy mood instantly soured as she approached the Hyuga girl. She didn't need to be told what happened. It was obvious. Hinata showed up with bruises at least once a month. This was a recurring occurrence at this point.
"Why don't you just beat her ass and be done with it?" Ino mulishly asked without even greeting Hinata first.
She tried to appear calm but her blue eyes were glaring at the bruises alongside the ravenette's arms and her hands were clenched into fists.
Over the months of their joint training, Ino came to like Hinata. She was like a very annoying little sister, whom she liked to tease in order to increase her confidence. She didn't like seeing her hurt.
"Hanabi is my sister." Hinata casually shrugged, not bothered by the pain as she focused on the healing. She was used to it by now.
She had to do a very delicate job with the healing. Her goal was to preserve the bruised appearance while healing everything below the skin. That was quite the challenge for her current medical ninjutsu skill so she had to put a lot of focus on the process.
"Haa~." Ino sighed in exasperation but whatever she wanted to say was interrupted when Ren appeared near them in shunshin, cheerfully smiling as he waved at them.
Then he noticed Hinata's bruises and his smile turned into a frown. He sighed, in much the same way Ino had done just a few seconds ago, but decided to forgo commenting on it.
He already had a conversation about it with Hinata and unfortunately, there was nothing they could do unless they wanted to alert the Hyuga family to the fact that Hinata was stronger than she tried to portray.
Her desired goal was to prevent both her sister and herself from being sealed and the only way to accomplish that was to reveal her power to the clan only when she was strong enough to strong-arm them into following her will.
If she did it sooner, they would just seal her sister and give her back her clan heirship. So, she had to endure losing the monthly 'sparring' with her sister.
"Hello, how was your week?" Ren asked the girls as he came closer to them and they greeted him back and started talking at the same time, only to stop and look at each other with annoyed expressions.
Ren mentally chuckled and his lips stretched into a smile again as the girls reached a silent agreement and Hinata spoke about her week first.
He leaned against a nearby tree and listened, letting her rant and vent, or proudly show her progress, and even praised her when she bashfully presented her attempt at cooking.
After around twenty minutes, Hinata was done and it was Ino's time to speak. Needless to say, Ren almost choked when he heard her proudly proclaim she used her classmates to learn how to seallessly inject yin chakra into her victims.
Yes, the ninja academy was for training ninjas. The kids didn't notice Ino's meddling? Sucks to be them. They just have to get better if they don't want to suffer more of her 'pranks'.
It's why Naruto's pranks are tolerated too. Contrary to popular belief, the orange menace does not target only his teachers. He targets his classmates too. And his pranks are good alertness training for the kids.
So, even if Ino's mischief were to be discovered by her teachers, she would get no punishment as long as she didn't cause any permanent harm.
No. It would be Ren who would get proper verbal trashing for his teaching methods because he was her tutor. This was the kind of shit he could end up in T&I for. Seriously, one day, the blonde girl was going to cause him an aneurysm.
"Alright." Ren shook his head, deciding to move on with their meeting. He indulged them. But now it was time to give them a little surprise, "Your academy year is coming to an end and I decided to organize a small outing with you two."
He smirked when the girls seemed excited. Oh, they had no idea what awaited them and he was going to enjoy their suffering every step of the way.
"Your parents already agreed. The first day of your holiday, we are going bandit hunting." He said, and suddenly, neither of the two girls was so excited anymore. Now they looked a bit conflicted and unsure because they knew what that meant.
The primary reason for their outing was not training but to get them blooded. To have their first kill.
Ren would love to avoid this unpleasantness. And yes, he could have left it in the hands of their future jonin instructors. He really wanted to do it too. But that would be doing a disservice to the girls.
"Okay. it's going to be a walk in the park!" Ino exclaimed in her usual fashion, but her heart was not in it.
Hinata, on the other hand, was anxiously clutching her hands, trying to appear outwardly calm but her eyes betrayed her unease.
"Don't think too much about it." Ren said in an attempt to reassure the girls. "It is still two weeks away. I have a more important announcement to make."
"Oh? Did you knock some kunoichi up or something?" Ino 'innocently' asked, clearly trying to distract herself by reverting to her usual teasing self, only to jump back, avoiding a chakra poke to her ribs courtesy of irritated Hinata who might have overreacted.
Ren didn't take it too seriously and just rolled his eyes at Ino, "Don't worry. You will be the first to know if such a thing happens."
And he was afraid he wasn't even joking. Ino had a penchant for gossip before he became her teacher. But now that she could use her clan techniques more freely? Now that she was finding new ways of using them without anybody even noticing and getting better at it by the day?
He loved the girl but there was a reason why he wore a Yin Containment Seal on his person all the time.
There would be no Yamanaka mental naughty-naughty going on in his mind without him getting alerted. Fortunately, she hadn't tried to get a sneak peek at his thoughts so far.
"How forward of you." Ino giggled.
Ren raised his eyebrow at her while Hinata too gave her a curious glance.
Noticing it, Ino decided to explain herself, "Well, the mother would obviously be the first person to know if she is pregnant or not." Ino explained and leaned forward while giving Ren a flirty smile, "I wouldn't mind. But you will have to talk with my daddy if you want to get a piece of this fine ass." Ino gave her posterior a soft pat and grinned at Ren.
Only to get a kick to her shin from the disgruntled Hinata, causing the blonde to yowl in pain and jump away, pulling her leg up in order to hold her hurt shin.
"What is wrong with you, bitch!" Ino cried with mock outrage.
"Don't think I don't know what you are doing, bimbo." Hinata flatly said, giving Ino a nonplussed look while trying to kick her again.
And Ren... was out of his depth as he wondered where the meek and kind Hinata had gone.
Suddenly, Ino jumped at him after evading another of Hinata's strikes, and he ended up catching her in a princess carry.
Ren blinked at Ino. Ino blinked at Ren. And Hinata blinked at both Ren and Ino.
Ren opened his mouth to make a quip about their situation.
But Ino abruptly put her hands around his head and pulled herself up, ending with her lips on his. Except, that was not enough for her as her tongue invaded his mouth and started eagerly exploring.
"Mhm!" Ino moaned, waking Ren up from his shock and causing him to stop supporting her body with his hands, dropping her onto the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Ren looked at Hinata who sported a very cold expression as she stared daggers at Ino who lay on the grass near Ren's feet. His eyes moved toward Ino, noticing that she was quietly giggling to herself, her face flushed.
"... What?" Ren almost staggered back.
'Don't tell me...' He once again glanced at Hinata. Then back at Ino. Before he owlishly blinked. Only to inwardly groan as a realization hit him like a truck.
'Oh. I am one dense motherfucker.'